06/02/2024
Now with plenty of time before our 7.15pm kick off, a second division match between RFC Liege and K Beerschot VA we decided to head to the ground, park up and look for something to eat close by.
We arrived at the ground some 2 1/2 hours before the game and see police directing cars to park in a car park close by. We ask them about parking and if there's somewhere close by we can get some grub. They advise us to park up now. We ask why so many people have arrived so early and they tell us "they want to drink!" - and drive?? Surely you shouldn't be encouraging that!! Anyway, we're a long way from any potential restaurants so decide our best bet is to head to the ground and have a scoff there.
We try to enter, flashing our tickets, but are stopped by stewards. "Are you eating?" "Yes, we're starving" "Are you VIPs?" "We like to think so". "Have you booked?". This is where it all unravelled. They were only admitting people who had booked a dinner in advance. There was no general admittance for another half an hour. We were bemused by the fact there's at least 50 people milling about seemingly for no reason in the cold and wind. We tried to find out why but the language barrier defeated us. We're in the French speaking region here and we're unfortunate that 1 - we're English which means we don't speak other languages and 2 - there are far fewer English speakers here than in the Flemish region. We remain bemused until they finally let us in about 40 minutes later, when it's straight to the catering hut!
Before kick off we're chatting in the club shop and when I tell the fella behind the counter I'm a Millwall fan he's very excited. Our former player Christophe Kinet finished his career here and went on to be coach and is apparently a bit of a legend!
The ground, the Stade de Rocourt, opened in 2015 has a capacity of 8,000. There's small stand along one side of the pitch flanked by open terracing on either side. Opposite is what looks like a club house housing the dressing rooms and players facilities and the 'VIP' dining area with upstairs seating. The away section of open terracing is to the left. Behind the goal is a decent sized covered terracing which is where we park ourselves.
Royal Football Club Liege are one of Belgiums historic clubs - they were the first league Champions and have won another 4 since, as well as one Belgian cup. They used to have a huge stadium in the Rocourt district attracting crowds of 50,000, but after years of decline the ground was sold for redevelopment in 1995 and the club was homeless for 20 years.
Tonight's opponents Beerschot are looking to return to the top division two years after relegation. To that end they've recently appointed former Liverpool legend Dirk Kuyt as manager.
Straight from kick off a Beerschot defender air kicks, leaving an RFC Liege forward clean through on goal. He fires into the side netting though and from the goal kick Beerschot immediately go up the other end and score. They look the better side in the early part of the game. Beerschots Croatian keeper Davor Mathijas is booed every time he touches the ball. The crowd behind the goal are pelting him with plastic beer glasses. We're never able to ascertain why. We surmise it could be the ridiculous man bun he's sporting. On 26 minutes the ref dishes out a yellow card to RFC midfielder Ryan Merlen. 4 minutes later he's booked again for a late tackle and shown the red card. A minute later the Croatian Beerschot keeper inexplicably dashes out of his goal to take out the RFC winger who's just broken clear with a wild challenge. The Liege staff and subs are all off the bench and on the pitch. The crowd are baying for action. The ref very calmly awards a free kick for offside and dishes out a second yellow to the Liege manager, sending him off. No action is taken against the keeper. The crowd are now pelting him with beer, glasses, coins, anything they can lay their hands on. Everyone is singing what we can only assume is an unflattering song about the referee. The game is held up for a few minutes. A liege striker pleads with the crowd to desist. They ignore him. There's a long announcement over the tannoy. This actually calms the crowd down and the game restarts. For the rest of the half Beerschot continually get behind the home defence but can't make it pay and we finish the half at 0-1.
You would assume that the Liege coach has been spending the half time break imploring his team to keep their discipline, stay calm and we've got a chance. A minute into the second half Liege midfielder Arbian Arslan lunges into a horrific tackle and is shown a straight red card. They're down to 9 men. Beerschot continue to breach the Liege defence but either mish*t their shot or shoot straight at the keeper. Me and Hucker have bet on all our games being away wins and stand to receive a reasonable pay out if Beerschot can't hang on for the win. We fear they'd profligacy in front of goal will be punished and we're right as in the 52nd minute Liege break at the other end and score an unlikely equaliser. They have their tales up and hold firm against waves of Beerschot attacks. On 72 minutes they break again and hit the bar. Is it possible Beerschot might even lose the game? They continue to spurn chances until on 82 minutes a cross cm shot from the left is fumbled by the Liege keeper at his near post and the ball is stabbed home. There's relief among the Beerschot players rather than elation. The Liege goalie, embarrassed by his mistake, feigns injury for a good five minutes. The goal calms the away side and they now make use of their two man advantage, scoring two more goals including one from D'Margio Wright-Phillips, son of Shaun and grandfather of Ian, who's on loan from Stoke City. The 4-1 win is enough to take Beerschot back to the top of the league. We head off into the night, a three hour drive to Calais ahead of us but happy with a weekend of incident packed football. In fact in my 8 games this week I've seen 33 goals, 6 red cards and a plethora of incidents on and off the pitch. Can't wait til the next trip!
